DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems

[buruskeee]

My recipe:
To add 0.1 mg/L ammonia to an aquarium, you would need to add 2.3 mL of either stock solution to a 100 L (26 gallon) aquarium. You may need to add this amount multiply times per day to dose enough.

35 mL in 10 gallons and dosing 1 gallon is dosing 3.5 mL.

3.5 mL dosed to 150 gallons is the same as dosing 0.61 mL per 26 gallons.

That is .61/2.3 = 0.26 times what I suggested. Thus, it is well below 0.1 ppm per day.

I’m going to use a dosing container. Can you check my math? My safety net will be having no more than a possible 2ppm “pump stuck on” total dose and so I want to mix 1,000mL of solution to last 20 days dosing 0.1ppm to my 150g (600L) system.

If I use 6g of Ammonium Bicarbonate to create a 1000mL solution, dosing 46ml will equate to 0.1ppm? The total solution, if doses to the tank at once, diluted into my 150g system, will equate a worse case 2.17ppm ammonia?

Thanks for helping with this.

 

[rishma]

I’m going to use a dosing container. Can you check my math? My safety net will be having no more than a possible 2ppm “pump stuck on” total dose and so I want to mix 1,000mL of solution to last 20 days dosing 0.1ppm to my 150g (600L) system.

If I use 6g of Ammonium Bicarbonate to create a 1000mL solution, dosing 46ml will equate to 0.1ppm? The total solution, if doses to the tank at once, diluted into my 150g system, will equate a worse case 2.17ppm ammonia?

Thanks for helping with this.

I have an unreasonable fear of switching the APEX outlet to on by accident and leaving it to overdose ammonia. I don’t know why, I have never left one on. But that is why I have not automated ammonium dosing

 

[rishma]

Two things to share

1) my LPS get extra fluffy after I dose ammonium bicarbonate. I assume this means they are happy, but who knows.

2) my stand smells like cat urine when I open the door now

 

[buruskeee]

I have an unreasonable fear of switching the APEX outlet to on by accident and leaving it to overdose ammonia. I don’t know why, I have never left one on. But that is why I have not automated ammonium dosing

This is why I’m trying my best to ensure no more than 2ppm after dilution into my system’s volume will take place.

I’m hoping my calculations are correct.

Two things to share

1) my LPS get extra fluffy after I dose ammonium bicarbonate. I assume this means they are happy, but who knows.

2) my stand smells like cat urine when I open the door now

Great PE is a welcome bi product - my main concern is not letting NO3 bottom out as I’m still not completely past dinos.

In the beaker, with the lower amount, it smelled strong and burned my eyes, but it wasn’t foul. I’d be ok with that. My dosing container is pretty air tight.

 

[rishma]

This is why I’m trying my best to ensure no more than 2ppm after dilution into my system’s volume will take place.

I’m hoping my calculations are correct.



Great PE is a welcome bi product - my main concern is not letting NO3 bottom out as I’m still not completely past dinos.

In the beaker, with the lower amount, it smelled strong and burned my eyes, but it wasn’t foul. I’d be ok with that. My dosing container is pretty air tight.

i don’t know how to program my apex to prevent me from being stupid, so for now I am manually dosing. I’ll eventually get to auto dosing it, but not emotionally prepared for it yet. My nitrate isn’t zero, but corals seem to like the ammonia.

I’ll leave the verifying your calculations to RHF. I spent decades afraid of ammonia and still not fully over the phobia

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have an unreasonable fear of switching the APEX outlet to on by accident and leaving it to overdose ammonia. I don’t know why, I have never left one on. But that is why I have not automated ammonium dosing

I don't know that it is unreasonable. I have never used any of the aquarium controllers, but I've seen enough problems that folks get that I'd be wary of any situation where a stuck on pump is a problem. I'm not sure they are always the fault of the user, but even if they are, such faults seem much rarer using a simple electronic timer from Lowes.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

2) my stand smells like cat urine when I open the door now

Oh, that's a drawback. Is it closed as best you can?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’m going to use a dosing container. Can you check my math? My safety net will be having no more than a possible 2ppm “pump stuck on” total dose and so I want to mix 1,000mL of solution to last 20 days dosing 0.1ppm to my 150g (600L) system.

If I use 6g of Ammonium Bicarbonate to create a 1000mL solution, dosing 46ml will equate to 0.1ppm? The total solution, if doses to the tank at once, diluted into my 150g system, will equate a worse case 2.17ppm ammonia?

Thanks for helping with this.

I've thought a lot about how to provide a safe limitation to things like AWC, ATO, etc., and in my situation where I'd want to leave the tank on its own for a fairly extended period, the answer needs to be pumps that can only dose about what I want each day, even when stuck on, rather than limiting the reservoir size.

On the math, 6 grams of ammonium bicarbonate contains 1.3 g ammonia. Put that into 150 gallons (606 L) and the concentration is 1,300 mg/606 L = 2.1 mg/L = ppm. So yes, that math is right.

 

[BriDroid]

Two things to share

1) my LPS get extra fluffy after I dose ammonium bicarbonate. I assume this means they are happy, but who knows.

2) my stand smells like cat urine when I open the door now

I agree! All of my corals are much more "fluffed up" after starting ammonium bicarbonate too.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I agree! All of my corals are much more "fluffed up" after starting ammonium bicarbonate too.

Do you know what your nitrate was before dosing?

Curious if this is a general N effect, or a specific ammonium over nitrate effect.

 

[BriDroid]

Do you know what your nitrate was before dosing?

Curious if this is a general N effect, or a specific ammonium over nitrate effect.

My N has always been 10 or less. I was dosing NeoNitro and NeoPhos daily to keep around 5-7ppm NO3 and trying to keep PO4 at 0.05-0.1ppm.

Now I'm dosing a solution of ammonium bicarbonate once a day that adds 0.2ppm NH3. I'm dosing trisodium phosphate in a solution that delivers 0.1ppm PO4. My NO3 sits at 5-6ppm when checked with a Hanna checker daily. My PO4 still bottoms out daily to 0ppm. That's another story! The good thing is my corals look very happy and algae is at a minimum, nothing that the snails and hermits can't take care of.

 

[Ziggy17]

So there are 50 pages in this thread so I apologize if this is covered in the stacks already. If I’m currently dosing Sodium Bicarbonate for Alk, should I choose to mix an Ammonium Chloride instead of Ammonium Bicarbonate to avoid and negative implications of using Bicabornate for both Alk and Ammonia? I only do monthly water changes of about 12%, so I’m not sure if that’s enough WC to mitigate any buildup issues. Or will no issues arise? I would ask the same question if choosing Sodium Chloride and Ammonium Chloride as well.

Thanks all.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So there are 50 pages in this thread so I apologize if this is covered in the stacks already. If I’m currently dosing Sodium Bicarbonate for Alk, should I choose to mix an Ammonium Chloride instead of Ammonium Bicarbonate to avoid and negative implications of using Bicabornate for both Alk and Ammonia? I only do monthly water changes of about 12%, so I’m not sure if that’s enough WC to mitigate any buildup issues. Or will no issues arise? I would ask the same question if choosing Sodium Chloride and Ammonium Chloride as well.

Thanks all.

Ammonium bicarbonate is net alk neutral. It does not add any alkalinity (it is just ammonia plus CO2), and I think for that reason it is preferable to ammonium chloride, which depletes alkalinity (it is ammonia plus hydrochloric acid) with use.

 

[rishma]

Do you know what your nitrate was before dosing?

Curious if this is a general N effect, or a specific ammonium over nitrate effect.

In my tank, the LPS getting fluffy seems to be a temporary effect resulting from the ammonium dose. My nitrate is currently 4ppm. I periodically struggle with zero nitrate, which is why I mixed up the ammonium bicarbonate solution; however, my nitrate is current 4 ppm. I started dosing this weekend just to observe what happens.

About 10 minutes after the dose, my trachyphyllia fluffs up noticeably. I have seen it several times in a row now so I believe it’s connected to the dose.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

In my tank, the LPS getting fluffy seems to be a temporary effect resulting from the ammonium dose. My nitrate is currently 4ppm. I periodically struggle with zero nitrate, which is why I mixed up the ammonium bicarbonate solution; however, my nitrate is current 4 ppm. I started dosing this weekend just to observe what happens.

About 10 minutes after the dose, my trachyphyllia fluffs up noticeably. I have seen it several times in a row now so I believe it’s connected to the dose.

Very interesting.

 

[rishma]

I've thought a lot about how to provide a safe limitation to things like AWC, ATO, etc., and in my situation where I'd want to leave the tank on its own for a fairly extended period, the answer needs to be pumps that can only dose about what I want each day, even when stuck on, rather than limiting the reservoir size.

I spend a lot of time thinking about this too. I am only home very other month. The tank needs to be self sufficient and stable while I am gone.

The inherently safe design you propose is optimal, but maybe not practical for smaller tanks.

The BRS doser is ~1.1ml per min. That’s a pretty slow dose. I am not sure if any other hobby pumps are slower. You would need a really dilute solution of anything being dosed to be inherently safe if the pump was left on. You also need to connect it to a float switch to ensure it doesn’t overflow.

Maybe I’ll tell my wife I need a bigger tank just to be safe.

Maybe I’ll start a thread on self sufficient tanks systems. I’m sure others do it too.

 

[Trillaman954]

Some reef aquaria have chronic low nitrogen availability. One indicator is very low nitrate. Nitrate dosing is a fine remedy, but it is possible that ammonia dosing may be more beneficial for some organisms since ammonia can be energetically easier to assimilate than is nitrate.

For this reason, I thought it would be useful to provide some DIY directions for ammonia dosing.

There are many materials that could be used for ammonia dosing, including some household ammonia solutions, but in order to give better assurance of purity, I'm electing the show directions using food grade ammonium chloride and food grade ammonium bicarbonate.

Ammonium Chloride
Ammonium chloride, NH4Cl is essentially ammonia (NH3) plus hydrochloric acid (HCl). The reason I mention that fact relates to the impact on alkalinity. Dosing NH3 followed by consumption by organisms to form tissue in a net alkalinity neutral process. I'm ignoring the fact that if it is converted into nitrate, alk is lost, because if that nitrate is later used, all the alk lost comes back.

However, the HCl that is effectively dosed will steadily deplete alk. Adding the equivalent of 50 mg/L nitrate (0.81 meq/L; coming from NH4Cl) will have depleted 0.81 meq/l (2.3 dKH) of alkalinity. That may need to be made up for in some other fashion, such as adding more alkalintiy supplement.

High quality ammonium chloride is readily available and inexpensive. Loudwolf is one brand, but there are many. Aim for food grade or ACS reagent grade. Amazon carries many Loudwolf is $7 for 4 ounces, which contains 38,000 mg of ammonium, and is equivalent to 131,000 mg of nitrate, enough to raise 100 L of aquarium water to 5 ppm nitrate about 262 times. So cost is not significant.

Ammonium Bicarbonate
Ammonium bicarbonate, also known as baking ammonia, NH4 HCO3 is essentially ammonia (NH3) plus CO2 and water.

As mentioned above, dosing NH3 followed by consumption by organisms to form tissue in a net alkalinity neutral process. The CO2 and water also do not impact alkalinity. Thus, ammonium bicarbonate is a net alk neutral way to dose ammonia.

High quality ammonium bicarbonate is also available from Amazon as baking ammonia. It is readily available and inexpensive. One brand sells 11 ounces for $15, so it's cost is similar to the Loudwolf ammonium chloride per unit of ammonia added (one needs to use more of the ammonium bicarbonate than the ammonium chloride, evening out the cost).

Stock Solution
Using either of these materials, we will make a stock solution for dosing. Keep it closed up as it will smell of ammonia and slowly loses ammonia to the air. Ammonium bicarbonate will have a higher pH, smell more, and lose ammonia to the air faster.

13.5 grams of ammonium chloride (about 3 - 4.6 teaspoons, varies by brand) in 1 L RO/DI water.
OR
20 grams of ammonium bicarbonate (about 4 and 3/4 teaspoons) in 1 L RO/DI water.

Both solutions contain approximately 4300 mg/L (4.3 mg/mL) ammonia, equivalent to 15,700 mg/l nitrate.

Dosing

Don't be overly afraid of dosing ammonia due to toxicity, but one cannot dose substantial amounts all at once. IMO, it is safe to add 0.1 ppm ammonia (equivalent to 0.36 ppm nitrate) at once to any reef tank, and one can likely add more, if it mixes in well. Don't dose it right onto a fish, but dosing 2-3x that amount at once is also likely OK. Of course, using a dosing pump to spread out the dosing is fine and may be preferable, but be sure to guard against dosing pumps out of control (e.g., stuck on). Stock solutions can be increased or decreased in potency to match pumping needs. The ammonia could also be put into an ato since exact daily dosing is not required.

To add 0.1 mg/L ammonia to an aquarium, you would need to add 2.3 mL of either stock solution to a 100 L (26 gallon) aquarium. You may need to add this amount multiply times per day to dose enough.

I'd add it to a sump, if possible, to dilute it well before it gets to the main tank. Most folks dosing ammonia wouldn't also be using media intended to push the nitrogen cycle in various ways, but if you do, dose downstream of that media.

Of course, if anything seems to react badly the first time or two that you dose, stop dosing, double check the amounts, and perhaps come back to this thread for further discussion of what might be happening.

This article has a lot more on ammonia in reef aquaria, although some parts of it may not be correct (such as the utility of products such as Prime):

Ammonia and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Happy Reefing!

edit: One can use this calculator for dosing these stock solutions. Use the entry for ammonia from ammonium nitrate when using the ammonium bicarbonate. For ammonium chloride, use it the same, but dose 0.7 times the amount it says to add to the aquarium.

James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator

What do you consider Low nítrate

 

[rishma]

What do you consider Low nítrate

Zero

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I spend a lot of time thinking about this too. I am only home very other month. The tank needs to be self sufficient and stable while I am gone.

The inherently safe design you propose is optimal, but maybe not practical for smaller tanks.

The BRS doser is ~1.1ml per min. That’s a pretty slow dose. I am not sure if any other hobby pumps are slower. You would need a really dilute solution of anything being dosed to be inherently safe if the pump was left on. You also need to connect it to a float switch to ensure it doesn’t overflow.

Maybe I’ll tell my wife I need a bigger tank just to be safe.

Maybe I’ll start a thread on self sufficient tanks systems. I’m sure others do it too.

I used to have diaphragm pumps called Reef Fillers (no longer sold), that could be mechanically dialed back to small amounts per day. I used them for ATO and AWC. I was thinking for the future of using peristaltic pumps that could be electronically set to an amount close to daily limit (such as a Versa). Not perfect, but better than a fast setting for short time periods.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What do you consider Low nítrate

Less than a few ppm.

Doesn't mean a tank couldn't benefit at higher levels, but below 2 ppm, I think it very likely they will.